<p>for the parents: just curious… why is your city so great to work in? what are the pros and cons of your city? how’s life like in general? for those who are experienced in multiple cities, can you rank them?</p>
<p>kfc, that’s a tricky question, because you take yourself with you wherever you go, so, it all starts with how happy one is with oneself in the first place. But let’s assume you’re happy in your own skin, then the question gets into issues such as your personal priorities related to work - career growth? education? quality of life and best resources for raising a family? Obviously, not all cities support all priorities at all times, but, again, if you’re happy with yourself, then just about any city is going to be terrific. </p>
<p>I work primarily in four cities, and they’re all great for different reasons. If I could blend all four of them together and come up with one city that has the best of all four, and leaves behind the negatives (being higher cost of living, traffic congestion, cold winters), now, that would be perfect. </p>
<p>Of the four, I would rank Miami as first, because of the business opportunities; however, the negative is the extreme overpopulation; New York is second, but with traffic/congestion problems combined with higher cost of living; Washington D.C. is third (it gets very boring and quiet during certain times of the year); Tampa is fourth - terrific city, but not enough business opportunity.</p>
<p>NYC will always have first place in my heart. There’s a lot to put up with–crowds, pollution, high rents, ( occasional transit strikes) but for the cosmopolitan, creative, high energy dynamic atmosphere–it’s hard to beat. More suited to the ambitious energetic type than the those who are more laid back–but that describes a lot of CC types.</p>
<p>I’ve lived in Boston–both city and suburbs–and Seattle suburbs. We own a business in Portland (OR). Of those three, I think Portland is the “best”. It has access to the great outdoors (including skiing on Mt. Hood), tons of public transportation and bike paths, Powell’s bookstore, public gardens, an active and reasonably priced restaurant scene, and several colleges and universities of different stripes that contribute to the community. Housing is still priced at a sensible level, and it’s possible to live well without working too hard.</p>
<p>We’ve lived in four major cities, Philadelphia, NYC, Boston, and Toronto. They all have pros/cons but my favorite, by far, for day to day living is Toronto. It’s clean; crime-free compared to any other large city; Canada’s financial and business center; excellent school system; great hospitals; wonderful universities; a cultural life which rivals only NYC; less than an hour and you’re ‘out in the country’ to lakes, ski hills; a beautiful waterfront location on Lake Ontario; major league hockey, baseball, and football; great museums. The only real negative is the tax system, but THAT negative is responsible for so many of the positives that it’s worth it! :)</p>
<p>I’ve lived and worked in two cities: New York and San Diego. I would never go back to New York. While San Diego has its drawbacks, like all cities, the quality of life, the climate, and the entrepreneurial business opportunities I’ve found here are wonderful. The downsides: high cost of living (but actually less than NYC), little public transportation, and the stigma of being considered “a Southern Californian.” 
But, overall, I am very happy living and working here and hope my kids will feel the same and return after they go elsewhere for college.</p>
<p>Pay no attention to Carolyn! San Diego is DREADFUL! You don’t want to live here. Every bad thing you’ve ever heard about southern California is true, True, TRUE.</p>
<p>(Carolyn, what are you trying to do? Isn’t traffic already bad enough for you? You trying to get more people to move here?)</p>
<p>Lived in Atlanta, Chicago, NYC, Austin, LA, Seattle, San Diego and Denver.
My favorites were Chicago, San Diego and LA in that order.</p>
<p>Lived and worked in New York, San Francisco. Lived in Washington, DC and later “worked” there via frequent business trips. Loved them all. But I have to make San Francisco tops. Not as expensive as Manhattan, walkable, great public transportation, great restaurants, culture, style, climate, clean, natural beauty when you lift your eyes and see Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay from so many locations. Easy drive to mountains, wine country, ocean… </p>
<p>Hmmm, there must be some reason I left there…</p>
<p>You can’t beat Manhattan for an ambitious but poor twenty something. The saying is true: If you can make it in Manhattan, you can make it anywhere. Manhattan is a continual career/connection springboard.</p>
<p>It’s hard to beat the midwest for the primary school phase of raising children; the free zoo, free museums, easy cultural access, easy commutes, amazing schools. </p>
<p>It’s hard to beat Rome if you want to be surrounded by great art.</p>
<p>It’s hard to beat Singapore for best eateries and parties–best place for meeting lifetime friends.</p>
<p>If you want to live by the Ocean and be able to ski in 90 minutes–without having to live in California (sorry carolyn), then down under is a good spot.</p>
<p>coureur is correct. With 300+ days of sunshine per year, San Diego is a dreadful place to spend time. Moroever, they have salary deflation since no one will leave – way too parochial. Heck, even Carolyn’s kids will return, after they’ve seen the county. My suggestion: Go EAST! LOL</p>
<p>jmmom:</p>
<p>housing in San Fran now rivals (if not exceeds) NYC…but, you can’t beat Dungeness crab and sour dough.</p>
<p>oh, yes, housing cost… it’s all coming back to me now … the reason I left San Francisco. But it’s not as costly as Manhattan in other respects. As much as I love Manhattan, the day-to-day out of pocket exceeds any other city I’ve personally lived in.</p>
<p>Heck, even Carolyn’s kids will return, after they’ve seen the county.>></p>
<p>Well, my daughter will return if she doesn’t die from the cold in Wisconsin first. I suspect son will need more headroom than San Diego, or perhaps planet Earth, can provide.</p>
<p>But, yes, on second thought, Coureur and Blue are absolutely correct: Don’t come to San Diego. It’s absolutely HORRIBLE here.</p>
<p>ok, not to disagree with you barrons but well i am. I have no disagreement with Chicago and San Diego but LA is a terrible place. Its so disconnected and impersonal and… yea, i could go on and on. I lived right in the city and for work was all over the county and I would never move back… ever.</p>
<p>I lived and worked LA adjacent–just across the county line in Simi-Thousand Oaks so I had a small town atmosphere with LA just minutes away. I enjoyed going to Westwood and Venice and Santa Monica and Pasasdena and Beverly Hills and Melrose and Malibu–you get the drift–LA is many small cities adjacent. That’s my LA.</p>
<p>alwaysamom, thanks for your description of Toronto (makes me want to visit! ) Just curious, why is Toronto practically crime-free compared to other big cities? What are they doing there that isn’t happening in NY or Chicago or LA, for example?</p>
<p>It’s because it’s boring.</p>
<p>Sorry. It’s in Canada, the culture is quite different from the US, and though it’s very diverse (Toronto is the city with the second highest proportion of foreign-born citizen in the world, after Sydney if I recall correctly), there is little historical segregation and “racial” tension between the different ethnic communities (that is, there is less racial/class divide than in the US). Besides, the city with the lowest (property + personal) crime-rate in Canada is actually Chicoutimi-Jonquiere (though it’s not a big city, well at least in population)…</p>
<p>momof2inca, </p>
<p>Despite what blobof says, I’d never consider Toronto boring. There are more things to do here than in most other cities I’ve lived in and visited, and it’s a lot more pleasant, to boot! ;)</p>
<p>To answer your question is difficult, especially this week. On Monday, Boxing Day here where everyone goes out and shops (just in case they didn’t get enough of that BEFORE Christmas!), there was a tragic shooting on the main street of the city. Thuggish young men shooting it out on a busy downtown street. Seven innocent bystanders were shot and a 15 year old girl was killed. People are sad and outraged at this, in a way I’ve never seen before. This year has been the worst in history for the city for murders: 78, which in a city with the greater Toronto area having a population of over 5 million seems like peanuts to American cities, but it’s usually much lower and almost all being family disputes. This year has been what Toronto is calling ‘the year of the gun’, with the majority of murders being young black men killing other young black men. The outrage is sparking movement both from citizens and politicians to find solutions to the problem. We are in the midst of a federal election campaign and the candidates for Prime Minister are also involved in the discussion. Canada is a ‘small’ country despite the vastness of its geography.</p>
<p>There are many differences here: there is not the type of poverty seen in the U.S., the education system is structured differently so that the quality of education doesn’t vary drastically from one school board to another as it does in the U.S.; everyone has access to healthcare which, although the system has problems, makes a difference. It’s an interesting country, and sometimes difficult to describe to those who don’t live here. For example, earlier this week, the front page story and photos on every newspaper in the country was the funeral of Wayne Gretzky’s mother. I think that says a lot about Canada. :)</p>
<p>I would recommend a visit to Toronto to anyone. I’ve hosted friends from all over the world here over the years and have never seen anyone disappointed with their visit. It’s not a perfect place, but it’s pretty darn close. </p>
<p>p.s. Blobof, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Chicoutimi but it’s not exactly the same as Toronto! ;)</p>
<p>Story on Toronto killings.</p>
<p><a href=“http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/12/27/canada.crime.ap/index.html[/url]”>http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/12/27/canada.crime.ap/index.html</a></p>
<p>I have been to both places, yes, though I was merely pointing this little crime factoid out in the interest of trivia. For those who want to know, there aren’t any similarities between the two places (Toronto being an actual large city with 5 million people, while Ville de Saguenay (the post-merger name Chicoutimi-Jonquiere) has 150 000 inhabitants, which makes it still one of the 25 most populous cities in Canada).</p>